let sleeping babies lie?

[anarchamom]

I'm looking for some input.

Questions:

1. What do you do, if anything, with a sleeping baby in a wet diaper?
*when awake I change diapers immediately, but when asleep...

2. Is it better to put a sleeping baby in a diaper that will make him feel somewhat dry at night or use a diaper that will feel obviously wet?

3. Does "sleep through the night" mean something different to ECers?
*My boy is 4 months old and people keep asking me if he sleeps through the night. There hasn't been a night yet that we don't wake up at some point. he wiggles, I wake up and change his diaper and nurse him back to sleep- no big deal. It's nothing like it was the first few weeks, but I still wouldn't say he sleeps through the night.

Any input or stories about what you do would be appreciated.

thanks all!

[sapphire_chan]

1. Change it. But then Lina's always been pretty easy to settle down again.
2. I don't see the use in a baby feeling wetness at night. The goal for night time ECing for me is to disturb everyone as little as possible. So for us that's meant no diaper and taking her to the potty at night, for other families that means a nighttime diaper, for others it means a stack of prefolds to switch out.
3. *laughing hysterically* I will be SO : happy when the 'sleep through the night' LIE is eradicated from this earth.
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006...t_are_sle.html gives a great explanation of all the awesome things that can disrupt sleep.
As long as everyone's getting enough sleep, meaning you because let's face it, the baby can always nap , just give a big grin and "nights are great!"

If it's a new mama though, please pass on the fact that sttn is BS and while some babies do, it's no more "typical" to do so than it is to walk at 7 months.

[srs]

1. change, because my kids get super rashy.

2. personally I've been using all natural fabrics (cotton) next to baby's skin. This does mean it will feel wet, but that's okay. I want to go to naked baby on waterproof mat/prefold but not sure I can convince my DH.

3. STTN happens when it happens. My DS doesn't pee in his sleep, but his longest stretch is 5-6 hours, which technically is STTN. At 2 years old, my DD started sleeping alone in her bed all night for 12 hours while staying dry. If that's the definition of STTN, then it does take a lot longer than "they" say.

[blackbird2]

1. we gently changed night diapers
2. i don't think it matters much... if you're not changing the diapers, it would probably be nicer to feel dry, right? If you are changing, baby won't be wet for very long. it's good for babies to be able to feel/see/know what's going on in their bodies, but that doesn't mean that a negative experience (ie. yuk, wet pants) is neccessary for learning.
3. I am so with saphireclan!!! If you're happy with your night parenting, great. success. who cares who wakes up when to do what. From an EC perspective, giving nightime pee opportunities helped DS sleep better. he didn't ever want to fully wake up, and did not need to be fully awake to pee. we co-sleep and nurse, and now at 22 mths he's dry all night.

[anarchamom]

Thank You

THANK YOU! especially for the back up on sleeping through the night. I felt so confused when people kept asking me this like they expected it to happen any day now. People were asking me at like 5 or 6 weeks- maybe earlier. I didn't feel like anything was wrong with us because we were all starting to get enough sleep despite waking a few times to change diapers and nursing back to sleep. I wondered if this was something that would happen with babies wearing disposables and not knowing that they are wet.

i will continue changing diapers at night for now although I wish it wasn't so dramatic for us. we co-sleep and have only braved nakedness a few times. it went well the first time because i just changed out the prefolds under him whenever i would hear him squirm and he never even woke up. another time pee just seemed to get everywhere and i couldn't get him situated without waking him up.
when the day comes that he doesn't pee all night, and I know it will, I will be amazed.

[anarchamom]

Thank You

THANK YOU! especially for the back up on sleeping through the night. I felt so confused when people kept asking me this like they expected it to happen any day now. People were asking me at like 5 or 6 weeks- maybe earlier. I didn't feel like anything was wrong with us because we were all starting to get enough sleep despite waking a few times to change diapers and nursing back to sleep. I wondered if this was something that would happen with babies wearing disposables and not knowing that they are wet.

i will continue changing diapers at night for now although I wish it wasn't so dramatic for us. we co-sleep and have only braved nakedness a few times. it went well the first time because i just changed out the prefolds under him whenever i would hear him squirm and he never even woke up. another time pee just seemed to get everywhere and i couldn't get him situated without waking him up.
when the day comes that he doesn't pee all night, and I know it will, I will be amazed.

[arlosmama]

1. he usually wakes a time or two and we always change his bum & give him a chance on the potty.
2. he wears the same in the day as at night.
3. and sleeping through the night happens for us by chance.. very rarely. although the other night he was up at 3am, then not again until 9:15am.. it was so nice. i even got up before he did! people have been asking me if he sleeps through the night for a long time too... i think breastfed babies tend to wake up more because the milk is digested faster. i dont mind getting up anyway.. he goes back to sleep pretty easily.

[BirthKathy]

1. I feed him first. If I'm awake when he's done (and sleeping), I change his diaper then. Otherwise, it waits till next time he's asleep and I'm not. He wakes every 2-3 hours all night, so I usually change him 1-2 times per night.

2. We use disposables day and night. Strangely, he used to stay dry all night (5 hours or more) when he was younger like around 6 months. Now he pees multiple times every night.

3. I'm getting tired of the sleep through the night question, too! Although I admit, I would like it if he slept longer. He doesn't wake up completely, just enough to get my attention and nurse back to sleep. So I don't take him to the potty. I used to when he was younger and was more awake at his night wakings.

[rissierae]

1. I changed them, but mostly because at that age we just used prefolds in diaper belts, so I could change it out without even moving him.

2. Prefold with diaper belt on a waterproof pad. It's quick to potty at night, and if there's a miss, it can be changed without waking.

3. I just told people he did, but that he had to get up to use the potty a couple of times- which is normal for anyone!

[anarchamom]

i'm going to have to look into the diaper belt. any suggestions of where to find them?

he wakes up (mad) at night when I try to take him to the potty. i sort of think the best i can do is to change the wet diaper. he is also a bit of a chunk, 16lbs at 4 months. since our bed is low to the ground, I have to do some heaving to get him up. i think this contributes to him waking suddenly and yelling.

[JMJ]

1: I'm not sure my experience is much help. DD's been sleeping dry for 10-12+ hours a night since she was a month old. If she's wet, she won't sleep, so if she's wet, I usually change her. When she wakes and can't get back to sleep easily, I know that she either has to go or has gone already, but that really doesn't happen very often for us.

2. We put her in a thin cotton diaper/waterproof cover at night just in case, but she rarely needs it, and most "nighttime" misses are first thing in the morning. If you're hoping for easy changes or holding all the nighttime pee in, I'd recommend something else.

3. STTN is a myth. Very few people actually sleep from the time they go to sleep until the time they wake up in the morning. I'm not sure I ever have... maybe a few times, but it's not something I normally do, and I wouldn't expect it from a baby. In our culture, it's generally defined something like "sleeps without waking parents for at least 6 hours." It has nothing to do with how much the baby sleeps and everything to do with how much the parents sleep.

Personally, we all sleep well, so I'm not concerned. DD goes most nights without waking DH, but I wake for a few seconds several times a night to nurse. DD usually sleeps through without coming fully awake, just stirring enough to get her needs met before we are all blissfully back asleep... for 10-12 hours a night since she was born! It's perfect for us.

[rissierae]

i'm going to have to look into the diaper belt. any suggestions of where to find them?

I made my own. I took an old pair of dh's underware, cut the elastic band off, cut it to fit ds, then sewed the ends together. I had to make a few different sizes for different ages. It's super easy though, and it's funny 'cause they have their own little underware band.

[anarchamom]

Originally Posted by rissierae

I made my own. I took an old pair of dh's underware, cut the elastic band off, cut it to fit ds, then sewed the ends together. I had to make a few different sizes for different ages. It's super easy though, and it's funny 'cause they have their own little underware band.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try. Where does the belt sit on the baby? How high up? And do you fold the prefold like you would if you were using a cover?

[rissierae]

Originally Posted by anarchamom

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try. Where does the belt sit on the baby? How high up? And do you fold the prefold like you would if you were using a cover?

The belt sits around the waist or hips, it tends to be the hips because babies have such round bellies . I just folded the prefold in thirds. Honestly, I don't know how to fold a prefold to use as a real diaper . Sometimes it can tend to be too long, especially if the baby is small. Then (and this was a bonus since I have a ds) I would just fold the front 1/3 or so down, that way there was more absorbency up front too. As he grew, I would experiment with folding flats and prefolds all different ways.